It’s quite the year for anniversaries. Amid the celebrations of four decades of Vancouver New Music this week, the Kronos Quartet marks its 40th season with the world premiere of a Philip Glass quartet at the Chan Centre on Saturday.

It’s very difficult to describe this estimable ensemble in a phrase but I’ll go with ‘the world’s preeminent alternate string quartet.’

Since violinist David Harrington first joined with three other like-minded musicians in 1973, the Kronos has been boldly, even recklessly, committed to a exploration of the universe of music.

“I decided I wanted to be a musician at age 12, and the world was just going to have to get used to it,” Harrington told The Vancouver Sun.

“In high school I played in the Seattle Youth Symphony, surrounded by a lot of musicians my own age and slightly older, and word got around about musicians like Bartok and Ives. There was a record store a block from my high school, and when I should have been studying, I was in the listening booths. So I was lucky to have access to this vast library of possibilities.

“Also I played in a quartet, which was learning a new piano quartet by Ken Benshoof. We gave the world premiere and I got totally hooked on first performances. It’s an amazing feeling of energy and risk. And this happened to me at age 16. The reason I’m talking to you today is because that piece was so good.”

Thus the idea of a quartet specializing in new music came as almost a matter of course.

“I had just heard George Crumb’s Black Angels, and I had to start a group because I had to play that piece. It caused my world to make sense for a split second,” said Harrington. “There was the world of Schubert on one side and the world of Jimi Hendrix on the other side. Seattle at that point was the focus of tremendous anti-Vietnam war protests. Somehow Black Angels brought all of that together for me.”

Back then alternate music did not really exist in the staid, conventional world of the string quartet.

“I was hoping that we could survive for a week,” said Harrington. “We were trying to survive in American society doing music that nobody ever heard of before, and assembling a repertoire that sounded right but also included social issues, which had never been part of the string quartet.”

It took a while.

“Our work is very, very slow, there’s no question about that. That first year Kronos would rehearse in the morning, and I’d spend the afternoons on the phone. Musical America magazine had a list of all the American agents, and I decided to call every single one of them in New York, methodically down the list,” said Harrington. “And I did not get one return call. Now, I can tell you, it’s not a good idea to piss off a young musician.

“I decided, OK, if that’s the way the world is, we need to work out something else. It took a long time, and we had help from people all over the world, especially the composers who write for us. In fact we didn’t record Black Angels for 16 years, because I knew it had the be the first piece on the album, and it took me all those years to work out what the second piece on the album should be.”

It turned out to be Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis’s 40-part vocal motet Spem in Alium, adapted for strings and recorded through multiple overdubs.

Four decades later, the ensemble still bristles with committed zeal for the new and an unquenchable desire to explore innovative ideas.

“As a culture, we need all the energy we can get from wherever we can find it. Experiences that give us confidence and renew optimism — this is a very important part of being a musician,” said Harrington.

Can there ever be too much new, too much exploration?

“Probably, from a perspective outside the group it feels like we have gone in all sorts of directions, but I feel that we’re incredibly consistent. We keep our ears open and allow ourselves to be magnetized by musical experiences that refresh us,” said Harrington.

“It’s fun to learn new things, and I think our audience feels the same way. I now realize that one of the results of my decision at age 12 was a sense of responsibility. One of our responsibilities as musicians is to make experiences that give people renewed energy and enthusiasm for solving problems. I have access to music 24 hours a day, and most people don’t get to do that.”

Finally, there’s the question of where classical music might be going as a result of the trail-blazing done by Kronos and others. Are we on the brink of a new post-classical order?

“I try to run away from calling our music post-classical, or using any other label,” said Harrington. “Today I was exploring the world of Orlando Gibbons (1583 — 1625) and deciding society wouldn’t be right if Kronos didn’t play Gibbons. Meanwhile, all these young composers around the world are bringing us brand new stuff. You never know where it might go next.”

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